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Strategic Evaluation of
Extra-Galactic Empire

Part 1: Imperial Astro-Politics

Summary

Starfleet Command has been made aware of the existence of a
distant galaxy which is connected to our own via a wormhole. A
variety of intelligence sources indicate that this galaxy is under
the control of a centralized, totalitarian government. Moreover, we
have learned that this government is aware of our existence and
general capabilities. We project a greater than 95% probability that
this government will exhibit expansionist behaviour in the near
future, and that they intend to use the Federation as their foothold
in the Milky Way galaxy. Moreover, we have determined that our
resources are insufficient to match this foreign government in a
military confrontation.

General Capabilities

This recently discovered extra-galactic imperial government (from
here on referred to simply as "the Empire") is a fairly
recent development in an ancient civilization of remarkable scope,
spanning at least twelve million inhabited star systems1
and 20 million intelligent species2,
using at least 6 million different forms of communication3
(in contrast, the Borg are highly prolific by our standards but they
have only a few thousand star systems, and they have encountered roughly
ten thousand species as opposed to 20 million). Fortunately, intelligence
operatives within both Starfleet Command and Section 31 have obtained a
great deal of information on its capabilities and history.

The Empire apparently overthrew a democratic Republic several
decades ago, coinciding with a period of galactic upheaval known as
the Clone Wars. Before this, their civilization had existed in a
fairly stable state for at least 25,0004
years, and much of the galaxy was already
inhabited before that period, thus suggesting heavy space
travel and colonization dating back much further. During that time,
their space travel capabilities have matured to the point that
interstellar travel or even cross-galactic travel can actually
be undertaken within periods of mere days or weeks by private
citizens of moderate means5,
using personal spacecraft! Given the fact that our best scientists
have been unable to solve the difficulties of transwarp and quantum
slipstream propulsion (which would take months rather than days6)
despite decades of effort7,
and that every experiment with such technology has ended in failure
and in some cases, serious damage8,
it is difficult to fathom the level of technological advancement
necessary for such technologies to be so common and reliable that
they are within the means of ordinary citizens. It is somewhat
curious that they have never developed transporter technology despite
their advanced age and technological maturity in other areas, but
there may have been religious objections involved (Species 8472 never
developed transporter technology either, despite its technological
capabilities).

In addition to their advanced space travel capabilities, the
Empire has demonstrated vast industrial capabilities. In a few
short decades, the Empire has successfully constructed numerous
functional starships exceeding 17 kilometres in length9,
and one spherical starship (known as "the Death Star") of
approximately 160 kilometres diameter, whose weaponry was capable of
completely destroying an M-class planet and scattering its mass10.
Its starfleet is vast, with tens of thousands of heavily armed
mile-long warships, hundreds of thousands of smaller capital vessels,
and millions of fighters11.
It has constructed several "worldships," in which wholly
artificial planets have been constructed with captive stellar light
sources and hyperdrive capabilities12,
and it took less than six months for them to construct more than
three quarters of a second Death Star which was even larger
and more powerful than the first (some estimates range as high as 900
kilometres diameter)13.
Even more startlingly, it had somehow
kept the location of the construction site a secret despite the vast
raw material requirements, by using a logistical train based upon the
transport vessels of a single private shipping corporation,
known as Black Sun14.
It is staggering to imagine that the raw materials necessary to
construct such a large vessel could be moved by a single private
shipping company, or that such vast amounts of raw material could be
moved in secret. Taken together, these engineering feats represent
hundreds of millions of times the industrial output of the Federation
throughout its entire history.

Before the Empire, the Republic had constructed a space station
(known as "Centrepoint Station") approximately 350
kilometres in length, and which was equipped with a graviton
generator so powerful that it could move planets from one star system
to another, and compress the cores of stars many light years away,
thus accelerating the rate of nuclear fusion and inducing a
supernova15.
The Republic had also completed the remarkable feat of constructing a
communications network allowing real-time communication from any
point in its galaxy to any other point in its galaxy16.
Moreover, there are "factory worlds" in which the entire
planetary surface is covered by automated manufacturing facilities,
with such a high level of sophistication that the entire planet can
be run by a few dozen human administrators17.
All of this has been facilitated by the development of sentient
android technology, which has apparently been continuously refined
over many tens of thousands of years until the point that sentient
androids are so inexpensive and common that they can be easily purchased for a variety of
tasks by ordinary citizens such as farmers (sentient androids date
back at least as far as the reign of an ancient pre-Republic despot
named Xim). And finally, the capital world of Coruscant is a "city
world", in which the entire surface of the planet is covered
with cityscape and whose population (numbering in the tens or perhaps
hundreds of trillions) are supplied by a constant stream of off-world
supplies carried by many tens of thousands of starships, entering and
leaving its star system daily18.

Given its size, capabilities, and maturity, we have assessed the
Empire (and the Republic before it) to be an index 95 culture on the
Weibrand logarithmic developmental scale19,
where 1 equals any pre-warp civilization and 100 equals the so-called
"unaffected races" such as the Cytherians, the T'Kon, and
the Q (the Federation is rated at index 23). Further refinement of
this initial assessment may be possible if and when we obtain more
detailed information. In fact, there is already some debate as to
whether the Empire should be placed in the "unaffected races"
category, given that it handily exceeds the capabilities of the T'Kon
in many areas20
(this naturally revives the longstanding criticism that there should
be some differentiation between the various index 100 "unaffected
races", since some are clearly more powerful than others).

The significance of the developmental differences between the
Federation and the Empire cannot be overstated. It will simply not
be possible for Starfleet to defeat the full weight of an Imperial
attack in straightforward military operations, so we must explore
other options.

Astro-Political Background

As with all civilizations, in order to understand its present, we
must first understand its past. For at least 25,000 years, the
pre-existing Republic was governed by a democratically elected
Senate, composed of more than a thousand senators who each
represented their own region of the galaxy. These regions were all
subordinate to a centralized federal government, located on a planet
named Coruscant. This federal government was led by a "Supreme
Chancellor", who was elected by the Senate.21
This is a fascinating aspect of their governmental system; by making
the Supreme Chancellorship position the choice of the Senate rather
than the general population, the Republic placed a great deal of
power in the hands of the Senate, with little or no checks and
balances on that power.

Such a system of government will tend to generate significant
corruption and regionalism, as individual Senators vie for increased
funding to their respective regional governments. In practice, it
would probably lead to a weakening of the federal government over
time, since the most powerful and influential senators will
inevitably object to the use of federal taxation as a wealth
redistribution mechanism. Without checks on their power, it is likely
that they would succeed in either diverting the bulk of federal
spending to their respective regional interests, or (more likely)
reducing federal taxation to marginal levels, thus increasing the
autonomy and authority of regional governments. This would lead to
progressive decentralization of power and exaggeration of regional
socio-economic disparities, and we have discovered evidence to that
effect: private corporations were permitted to maintain armies and
fleets of warships22,
and certain regional governments had amassed such resources that they
were able to field large fleets and armies of their own23.

A federal government presiding over such a heavily decentralized
civilization will have difficulty maintaining control without
effective and economical enforcement mechanisms. Fleets of warships
are expensive to build, operate, and maintain, and given the fact
that regional governments and private corporations were able to field
significant military forces of their own, federal military forces
could conceivably be insufficient to maintain control alone. This is
where the "Jedi Knights" entered the equation. They were a
religious organization whose beliefs were startlingly similar to an
ancient Earth religion known as "Taoism". They believed
that the universe is permeated with a mystical energy (called "the
Force") which is generated by all life forms, and that there are
two forms of this energy: the dark side and the light side, in
perpetual balance (see the concept of Yin and Yang in historical
texts regarding Taoism). However, while Taoism is now regarded as a
foolish superstition in the Federation (much like Judeo-Christianity,
Buddhism, Hinduism, and other ancient Earth religions), Force-related
phenomena appear to be verifiable and repeatable.

Intelligence sources indicate that the Jedi Knights were able to
use the Force in order to telekinetically manipulate objects as large
as spacecraft24,
gain very precise short-term and somewhat sketchy long-term
precognition of the future25,
and also to telepathically scan and/or influence sentient beings26.
It is evident that they were used by the federal government as
enforcers, in both overt and covert operations. They were
exceptionally lethal warriors, and could only be defeated through
overwhelming firepower. Section 31 has theorized that they were used
as a form of "secret police" by the federal government, in
order to maintain discipline through terror. While they were not
numerous or powerful enough to conduct large scale military
operations, they were highly effective at infiltration and
assassination and they carried a fearsome reputation27,
thus making them the ideal instrument of control over wayward
regional leaders. Their telepathic scan and influence capabilities
also made them ideal for early detection of anti-governmental plots,
as well as spy recruitment and covert participation in diplomatic
negotiations.

It is clear from the preceding data that although the Republic was
a highly corrupt, decentralized government, it was stabilized by the
Jedi Knights. It was therefore inevitable that when their order was
destroyed, the Republic would collapse. At this point, our
intelligence data becomes somewhat sketchy; it is known that the Jedi
Knights were mostly exterminated around the time of a destructive
conflict known as the "Clone Wars", and it is suspected
that internal strife and civilian unrest were used as an excuse for a
massive militarization program which restored central authority and
civilian confidence (there are certain historical parallels to the
rise of Adolf Hitler in 1930s Germany). Over time, this central
authority became a totalitarian regime, and Supreme Chancellor
Palpatine gave himself the title of Emperor. Within a few short
decades, the Empire had achieved nearly total control of the galaxy,
including myriad "outer rim" systems which had previously
been independent, and it had constructed a military organization of
staggering size and scope, only to be felled by that most common
failing of empires: the lack of a clear line of succession. Just as
the empire of Alexander the Great rose almost overnight but fell to
internecine conflict and centrifugal tendencies after his death, and
the Roman Empire consumed itself in civil war after the death of
Emperor Commodus, so too did Palpatine's Empire collapse after his
death.

Current Astro-Political Climate

The current political climate has recently stabilized under a new
totalitarian regime. A New Republic was formed after a series of
destructive civil wars which followed Palpatine's death, but with
only one Jedi Knight and a handful of semi-trained acolytes,
it rapidly fell prey to the same corruption, regional disputes, and
centrifugal tendencies that brought down the Old Republic. When the
New Republic was threatened by new external and internal threats, it
was almost inevitable that the government would return to a more
centralized, authoritarian model28.

Our intelligence data is extremely sketchy at this point,
but it would appear that this authoritarian government eventually
became a new Empire, and that it swiftly and ruthlessly dealt with
the aforementioned threats. However, it has been said that "an
empire founded by war must maintain itself by war"29,
and while it is indeed possible for an authoritarian empire to remain
stable for decades or even centuries (eg- the Roman empire, or the
Chinese dynasties), this task is made much simpler if its leaders can
use an external threat to distract the population from internal
problems. This should come as no surprise to Federation societal
planners, since the maintenance of our own collectivist ideology and
high level of militarization has always been facilitated by the
existence of external threats, most notably the "cold wars"
with the Klingon and Romulan Empires, not to mention armed conflicts
with the Cardassians and more recently, the Borg and the Dominion.

Unfortunately, it would appear that we are being used as
that external threat. Therefore, since Imperial aggression seems to
be a domestic political imperative, we see little or no chance for a
peaceful resolution through diplomatic negotiation.

6"Best
of Both Worlds", in which it was revealed that it took a full
six months for the first Borg cube to arrive in Federation space,
and "Hope and Fear", in which Arturis' quantum slipstream
technology would have required 3 months to cover 60,000 light years
in order to reach Earth.

7Neither
quantum slipstream or transwarp propulsion has ever been
successfully deployed on a production Federation vessel, despite the
fact that transwarp has been under research for more than 80 years,
since Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock.

8In
"Hope and Fear", USS Voyager suffered serious structural
damage from a brief use of alien quantum slipstream technology, thus
prompting Captain Janeway to order that they never attempt to use it
again despite its potential. In "Threshold", Lieutenant
Tom Paris underwent bizarre, dangerous mutations as a result of what
appeared to be warp 10 travel. In "Day of Honour", an
attempt to deploy Borg transwarp technology resulted in the
near-destruction of USS Voyager, and a warp core ejection. The
transwarp prototype vessel USS Excelsior was a failure, and the
design was eventually modified in order to use conventional warp
drive.

9The
Executor-class "super star destroyers", as well as the
even larger Sovereign and Eclipse-class vessels which incorporated
spine-mounted superlasers capable of sublimating the crust of a
planet with a single blast. Sizes referenced in Star Wars
Encyclopedia. Note that SSD size is commonly underestimated at 8 km,
but simple visual scaling of the Executor's introduction scene in
TESB will reveal that this is impossible. Moreover, comparison of
bridge tower sizes indicates that it is roughly 17.5 kilometres
long. This is corroborated by the modelmakers, who designed it to be
11 times the length of a normal Star Destroyer.

20The
T'Kon empire was destroyed by a single supernova, as described in
"The Last Outpost". In contrast, a supernova destroyed an
inhabited world in Tales of the Bounty Hunters with no noticeable
effect whatsoever on the Imperial culture or economy.

21As
demonstrated in "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace",
when the Senate voted Valorum out of office and then voted Palpatine
into ofice as his replacement.

22The
Trade Federation's droid army and battleships are a good exampe of
this phenomenon.

23The
Corporate Sector Authority, which controlled 10,000 star systems and
had its own starfleet, as referenced in the Star Wars Encyclopedia.

25In
"Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace", Qui-Gon
explained that inhumanly fast Jedi reflexes are actually due to the
Jedi ability to "see things before they happen".
Longer-term precognition is demonstrated by both Yoda and Emperor
Palpatine on numerous occasions, particularly in "Star Wars
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back", when Yoda clearly foresees
the capture and torture of Luke's friends.

26Obi-Wan
demonstrated his ability to influence minds in "Star Wars
Episode IV: A New Hope", the canon novelization for "Star
Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" described how Emperor
Palpatine used the Force to artificially inflate the morale of the
entire Imperial armed forces, and many other detailed descriptions
of telepathic Force abilities can be found in the Star Wars
Encylopedia.

27In
"Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace", the Neimoidian
Rune Haako fully expected to die when he discovered that two Jedi
Knights were loose on his starship, despite its large complement of
battle droids.

28This
is the underlying scenario for my fanfic, and it's basically a
pre-requisite for a Federation/Empire conflict. After all, the
original Empire fell with no recorded conflict with the Federation,
and a New Republic/Federation war would probably not happen due to
the ideological similarities between the Republic and the
Federation, so one must simply concoct a scenario in which the
Empire rises again. One could posit an "alternate timeline"
in which the original Empire fought the Federation, but once again,
this is difficult to rationalize; the Federation is not aggressive
enough to unilaterally attack the Empire (and if it did, it would
unify the SW galaxy against it), and the Empire would not attack the
Federation until it had gotten its own house in order, which never
did happen.